Typical military aviation helmets have multiple accessories attached to them in addition to the standard communications microphone and headphones. Such accessories include night vision goggles (NVG), helmet mounted flashlights (lip light), and active noise reduction units (ANR). These accessories are typically powered by commercial AA, 9V, or special half size AA Lithium-ion (½ AA Li-ion) batteries that are attached to the helmet in various ways. As such, aircrew must carry replacement batteries to replace the batteries in operation when they are depleted. Pilots and crewmen are often required to change these batteries in flight. This can be difficult, inconvenient, and at times dangerous in today's high workload tactical aircraft. Additionally, the ½ AA Li-ion batteries are expensive and very difficult (if not impossible) to find in countries outside of the United States.
Currently many civilian aircraft, and some non-standard military aircraft require the pilot to unplug and switch communications cords when switching from the helmet mounted microphone to the oxygen mask mounted microphone. This is inconvenient at best, and dangerous at worst. As such, there is a need for a cockpit-mounted unit that provides DC electrical power (drawn from the aircraft electrical system) to the pilots helmet mounted accessories, and the ability to select microphone input without unplugging and swapping cords.